On January 1st Israel announced that it would begin withdrawing some troops from Gaza. Reservists from two brigades would be sent home while those from three others would return to Israel for training. The drawdown may signal the slow start of the war’s next stage.Ask anyone in Gaza what he or she ate yesterday, and the answer will be brief. Families are surviving on scraps from the un and other aid agencies. The un’s World Food Programme (wfp) says half of the displaced families in southern Gaza go entire days without eating anything. Why is Israel causing a humanitarian crisis without being stopped ?

